Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Ari Goldberger found that plows had dumped snow on his bike path in Boston, so he and his friends decided to plow through the snow that was dumped. They built a 40-foot tunnel for bikes so they could continue their commute by bike.

The tunnel didn't last long, as someone put a bolder in the middle and knocked it down, but at least it made a statement for alternative transportation and having fun playing in the snow!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Again, we have the situation that women's athletics take a back burner when men take them over.

At the University of Tennessee, one of the main reasons that the women's basketball program set the pace for decades in bringing women's sports to the forefront was that the women's athletic departments were separate from the men's.

Now the University of Tennessee has decided to combine the departments, and in that unity plan, of fifteen people laid off from their jobs, twelve were women. Of the eight-member leadership team created by Athletic Director Hart, seven are men, with NCAA rules mandating a senior woman administrator, so there had to be at least one woman. The committee has decided to end the Lady Vol name, with the exception of basketball.

As those on top of the hierarchy, men, have the opportunity to take care of their own, and women become their afterthought who should be glad for crumbs dished out, the reign of men in sports continues.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

What if our corporations weren't so powerful, and did not exert so much influence towards our laws and our society? Would that mean we would have an easy way to save more lives?

While we spend so much money on many programs to save lives, what about the most obvious one? How about standing up to the tobacco lobby and stop their ability to kill?

Tobacco use is killing more people in the US today that substance abuse, firearms, and traffic accidents. Is it time yet to hold the tobacco industry accountable, or will they remain part of our corporate structure whose actions towards people are fine as long as the profits are up.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Even though we have Title IX for decades, where we don't see progress is in the professional realm of sports in the United States, as most women need to moonlight in order to make ends meet.

If a male athlete is at the top of his field, just his signing bonus is more than almost every family in the United States will ever see financially their entire lives. A male professional basketball player would laugh at making $107,000 a year which is the top salary of a WNBA player.

Somehow the people of this country have become convinced that for-profit male teams are part of their fiber, allowing themselves to be taxed to provide places with public funds just so these male athletes and owners can make more money. Not that we would wish that model on women, but until we rethink our capitalistic male sports culture (and college football) then there is no room left for athletes who are shut out of the male-dominated money-making realm.